wingman adapter

[deepthought]

I have a logitech wingman Gamepad extreme,
part number:863163-0000

how would i make a gameport tu UBS adapter for it?

i have a dead soundcard i can get a GP connector and a few extra USB cables, but i need to know which pins on the GP to connect to which pin un usb. any help?

thanks!

[akula65]

***WARNING: The following is provided for informational purposes only. It is not a recommendation. Any damage resulting from the use or misuse of this information is not my responsibility or that of the DescentBB.net forum.***

I have an identical gamepad (same part no.) along with the USB-to-gameport adapter that ships with it. The adapter measures 247 mm (9 3/4 inches) in length from the tip of the USB connector to the tip of the gameport connector. If one were to make an adapter from scratch, it might be wise to make sure the length is no greater than the official one.

For reference purposes, I will use the pinouts on the following pages:

http://pinouts.ru/Slots/USB_pinout.shtml (USB side of adapter is A-type plug in upper left corner of page)
http://pinouts.ru/Inputs/GameportPC_pinout.shtml (gameport side of adapter is 15 pin D-SUB female connector in upper left corner of page)

Note that if you examine the male plug on the joystick gameport connector (directly at the ends of the pins), the pins are numbered 1-8 from left to right along the top (wider row) while pins 9-15 are from left to right along the bottom row (narrower row). There is also a J1 marking on the right side of the connector.

Note that the pin sockets on the gameport side of the USB-to-gameport adapter are numbered in mirror-image, and therefore pin-socket numbers match when the male plug and female socket are mated.

I did a complete resistance matrix measurement for all gameport sockets and USB connections on the adapter, including the shield on both ends. Rather than list the entire matrix, I will just give the non-infinity values:

Gameport adapter socket 1 - USB adapter pin 1 = 0.7 Ohms
Gameport adapter socket 14 - USB adapter pin 2 = 0.6 Ohms
Gameport adapter socket 10 - USB adapter pin 3 = 0.6 Ohms
Gameport adapter socket 4 - USB adapter pin 4 = 0.6 Ohms
Gameport adapter shield - USB adapter shield = 0.6 Ohms

So if you look at the pin descriptions on the web pages, pin 1 on both ends corresponds to +5 Volts. Pin 4 on both ends corresponds to Ground. USB pin 2/gameport socket 14 is Data - (Button 3 on gameport socket) and USB pin 3/gameport socket 10 is Data + (Button 4 on gameport socket).

There is no way to \"open\" the adapter to see if there are any additional electrical components in the adapter since the connectors are covered in molded plastic.

Good luck with the experiment.

[deepthought]

it didn't work. i have, however, found an adapter on ebay, which i will open up if i ever get around to ordering it.

[Isaac]

Thanks akula65!

[deepthought]

did it work for you, isaac?

[Isaac]

did it work for you, isaac?

No, but I thought it would be ok to at least thank him for his post since you did not.

[akula65]

At the time deepthought made the first post I had the controller sitting on top of a machine under my desk, so it wasn't really much trouble to make the resistance measurements.

I normally play games on a couple of old 933 MHz Pentium III machines running Win98 SE. Just for the heck of it, I decided to see if the WingMan Gamepad Extreme would work under Win 7 Home Premium (32-bit) on a Compaq CQ5110F machine (AMD Athlon 7550 Dual-Core 2.5 GHz) with the USB adapter. I installled the WingMan Game Software Version 5.10.127 (lgs510.exe) available on this page:

ftp://ftp.logitech.com/pub/techsupport/joystick/

The Logitech software had no problems detecting the controller and all of the buttons and axes responded properly in the calibration routine. I don't have an appropriate game installed to test the controller.

Edit: I own several Microsoft controllers, including the SideWinder Freestyle Pro gamepad. This controller is a gameport controller that shipped with a USB adapter labeled \"Microsoft SideWinder Devices Only, Made in China, 98427\". I tested this 98427 adapter with the Logitech WingMan Gamepad Extreme on the Compaq CQ5110F machine, and it seems to work as well. The 98427 USB adapter was shipped with more than one Microsoft controller as noted in this thread:

viewtopic.php?t=14791

So that gives you another possible option, and you might be able to find it at a Goodwill store/flea market/yard sale/ etc. with or without the SideWinder controller.

[akula65]

After re-reading the descentbb.net thread listed in the preceding post, I started to wonder if any of the gameport pins were shorted in the Logitech gameport-USB adapter as the thread participants discovered was the case for the Microsoft adapter. Lo and behold, the exact same pins (2 and 7) are connected on the gameport side of the Logitech gameport-USB adapter, so the Logitech and Microsoft adapters do appear to be identical from a wiring standpoint.

So deepthought, in addition to the four cross-connector connections, you need to connect the shields of the USB and gameport connectors, and you need to short pins 2 and 7 on the gameport side of the adapter. Hopefully, that will give you a working adapter.

Also, if you are using a 64-bit version of Windows, there is a 64-bit version of the latest Logitech WingMan Game Software on the Logitech FTP page cited above:

ftp://ftp.logitech.com/pub/techsupport/ ... 10_x64.exe

[deepthought]

Thanks! shorting pins 2 and 7 worked!

[akula65]

Cool. I put a post in the other thread to indicate that Grendel's circuit works with this Logitech controller as well.